Pleated buffing wheel



Jan. 6, 1959 F. E. HENDRICKSON 2,867,062

PLEATED BUFFING WHEEL Filed March 18, 1957 United States Patent I PLEATED BUFFIN G WHEEL Fritz E. Hendrickson, South Elgin, 111., assignor of onehalf to'Murray Ireland, Elgin, Ill.

Application March 18, 1957, Serial N 0. 646,733

2 Claims. (11. 51-193 A This invention relates to improvements in buffing wheels and is more particularly concerned with the simple and inexpensive novel construction and novel mounting of a buffing element on a central mounting member or hub, and to the method of producing such bufling elements.

Previous constructions of bufiing wheels have been subject to certain disadvantages, not only in assembly and disassembly but also in construction and use. These disadvantages have occasioned excessive amounts of time in assembling and disassembling a wheel, as well as high costs of. operation and inefficient, unsatisfactory results in their use. It has been a common practice in this art of providing flexible fabric buffing elements gathered or bunched indifferently around the periphery of the mounting member or hub and extending radially outward thereof. While this may provide a wheel that is uniformly soft at its periphery when new,- the number of hard spots increases as wear reduces the working diameter into the indiscriminately bunched fabric. As a result, the bufling character of the wheel changes and buffing elements must be replaced longbefore the elements are fully utilized thus causing considerable loss of operating time, increased assembly time, and high cost arising from waste of fabric.

The present invention seeks to eliminate the foregoing objectionable features by providing a bufiing wheel construction having a central hub or mounting member on which there are peripherally spaced outwardly extending spokes and a plurality of novel bufling elements, each fabricated from a blank of multi-ply fabric arranged and mounted one on each spoke. Each bufling element is folded or pleated in such manner and adjacent elements so cooperate as to provide a peripheral bufling area on the wheel which is substantially uniform in width throughout, and which width remains consistently uniform during the entire working life of the wheel. The improved buffing wheel results in a reduction of fabric waste because of its extremely simple construction and in more uniform bufiing with better results.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a buffing wheel which is constructed to retain uniform buffing characteristics throughout its entire useful life.

Another object of the invention is to provide a buffing element composed of multi-ply fabric which is formed into a highly eflicient unit primarily by folding, rather than by cutting or bunching.

Another object is to provide a bulfing element which is folded and pleated in such manner as to cooperate with like adjacent elements to provide a buffing surface of substantially uniform width and having substantially uniform buffing qualities throughout.

Another object is to provide a novel method for forming buffer elements from buffer fabric.

With the foregoing and such other objects in View, which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter fully 2,867,062 Patented Jan. 6, 1959 described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that various changes in form, proportion, size and minor details ofthe structure may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Referring to the drawings in which the same characters of reference are employed to identify corresponding parts:

Fig. 1 is a face view of a buffing wheel constructed according to the principles of the present invention, a portion of one of the bufiing elements being brokenaway to better show the mounting thereof;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary edge view of the buffing wheel, taken substantially along line- 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a blank of multi-ply fabric material used in forming one of the buffing elements;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the blank folded upon itself to provide a center pleat;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmental detail sectional view taken on line 55 of Fig. 1; and,

Fig. 6 is a view looking at the peripheral edge of one of the folded buffing elements before it is mounted on the mounting element or hub.

Referring to the accompanying drawings and particularly to Fig. 1, the numeral 10 illustrates a central mounting member or hub which comprises a rigid circular plate having a flanged axial opening 11 for receiving a mounting shaft. (not shown). The hub 10 has a plurality of peripheral radial spokes 12 circumferentially spaced apart uniformly and said plate may be reinforced to minimize flexing by a plurality of radial ribs 13 formed therein.

The radial spokes 12 provide mounting means for a plurality of buffing elements 14 which combine to providea bufiing wheel having an unbroken working periphery, the face of which is of substantial uniform effective width throughout and one which will retain such uniform width as well as its prerequisite degree of wearability throughout its useful life.

Each of the bufiin'g elements 14 comprises one or more thicknesses of textile material. This material. referably is cut on a bias with respect to the weave so as to resist ravelling and yet provide a frayed buffing edge.

The multi-ply or single thickness of textile material is formed into a blank 14a, as. illustrated in Fig. 3. This fabric blank is substantially oval-shaped with substantially semi-circular end edges 15 and straight connecting side edges 16. It is then folded along transverse fold lines 17 and 18 to provide a medial transverse accordion pleat 19 (Fig. 4). All three thicknesses of the pleat are pierced or slotted, as at 21, on the longitudinal axis 22 of the blank to provide mounting openings. These slots may be formed in the blank before or after pleating. The fabric around the mounting openings 21 may be reinforced, if desired, by a patch 23 which may consist of fabric heavier than the buffer fabric, or of leather or the like. Rows of stitches 24 secure the patch 23 in place and, if so desired, also secure the blank in its pleated condition. The blank thus pleated, pierced, reinforced and stitched is ready to be mounted upon the mounting hub 10.

One formed buifing element 14 is mounted on each radial spoke 12 on the mounting hub. This is accomplished by folding on itself the pleated blank along its longitudinal axis 22 (Fig. 4), with the patch 23 on the inside of such fold. A mounting bracket 25 is arranged with its elongated body portion 26 over the patch 23 and its integral projecting legs or anchoring parts 27 extended one through each of the pair of mounting openings 21. The legs 27 are offset in opposite directions from the plane of the body portion 26 so that one 3 is disposed on each side of the spoke bufling element 14 is to be mounted. Rivets 28, or the like, are employed to fixedly secure the mounting bracket 25 to the spokeand thereby firmly anchor the bufl'lng element to the spoke in its pleated and folded condition.

The pleated portion 19 of each buffing element 14 is of such width and the buffer elements are so spaced on me hub that the fold edges of the pleats of adjacent buffer elements are in substantial end abutment at the base or longitudinal fold line 22.

The substantially triangular single folded end portions 29 (Fig. 6), on either side of the medial pleat 19 of each adjacent bufling element 14, are adapted to overlie one another to fill the substantially triangular shaped space (as seen in face view) between the pleated portions of the adjacent elements and thereby provide an unbroken periphery on the buifing wheel.

The bufiing wheel formed by the buffer elements 14 has a working peripheral surface of substantial uniform width or thickness, as a result of the bufiing element construction. The peripheral areas defined by the pleats 19 are comprised of six thicknesses of material whereas each substantially triangular end portion 29 is comprised of two thicknesses of material. However, because the triangular end portion 29 of adjacent buffer elements overlie one another and are gathered or wrinkled substantially as indicated at 29:: in Fig. 2, there is provided more than four thicknesses of material in any given area of any consequence. In fact, the gathering of the end portions 29 creates a thickness composed of substantially six layers in the major portions of the overlapping areas. The effective width of the buffing wheel is therefore substantially uniform throughout its entire periphery. This desired condition is of course maintained throughout the radial dimensions of the wheel, thus the buffing characteristics of 'the wheel remain unchanged throughout its useful life.

As other embodiments may be made in the invention, and as changes might be made in the embodiment set forth, it is to be understood that all matters hereinbefore set forth and shown in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. 1

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a bufiing Wheel, a circular hub having an axial opening therein for mounting it on a shaft, mutually spaced spokes extending outwardly radially from the periphery of said hub, a buffing annulus on said hub hav- 12 on which the ing a peripheral work surface and comprised of a plurality of multi-ply elements of fabric material carried by said spokes, a medial pleat in each element, said elements each being folded along a line perpendicular to the pleat therein so as to define a semi-circular shape having a greater number of material thickness in its medial pleated portion than at its end portions, mounting brackets one seated in the fold of each element and each having integral leg portions extending through the material at the fold, said leg portions overlying the related spoke and being secured thereto to hold the element in place, said spokes being peripherally spaced to permit the end portions of adjacent elements to overlap one another to afford a material thickness in the peripheral work surface of said overlapped portions that is substantially the same as the thickness of the peripheral work surface of the medial pleated portions of said elements.

2. In a bufiingwheel, a circular hub having an axial opening therein formounting it on a shaft, mutually spaced spokes extending outwardly radially from the periphery of said hub, a buffing annulus on said hub having a peripheral work surface and comprised of a plurality of multi-ply elements of fabric material carried by said spokes, a medial pleat in each element, said elements each being folded along a lineperpendicular to the pleat therein so as to define a semi-circular shape having a greater number of material thicknesses in its medial pleated portion than at its substantially triangular unpleated end portions, mounting brackets one seated in the fold of each element and each having integral leg portions extending through the material at the fold and embracing the related spoke, rivets securing said leg portions to the spokes to hold the elements in place, and the width of each element at its fold being such that when said elements are mounted on the spokes adjacent elements are in substantial abutment at their folds and the end portions of adjacent elements" overlap one another to afford a material thickness in the peripheral work surface'of said overlapped portions that is substantially the same as the thickness of the peripheral work surface of the medial pleated portions of said elements.

References Cited in the file" of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 23,391 .Hall July 17, 1951 2,280,399 Garling Apr. 21, 1942 2,484,994 Hall Oct. 18, 1949 

